双语阅读：新冠肺炎大流行，感染奥密克戎会出现哪些症状注解

With cases of Omicron rising throughout the United States, Americans are scrambling to distinguish the symptoms of this new variant from those of other coronavirus variants ¹, including Delta.文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-the-symptoms-of-omicron.html

随着奥密克戎病例在美国各地不断上升，美国人正忙于将这种新变异株的症状与包括德尔塔在内的其他变异株症状区分开来。

Most P.C.R. and rapid antigen tests can detect Omicron — the Food and Drug Administration has noted there are only a few tests that don’t — but results do not indicate to the user which variant they are infected with, leaving people to guess.文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-the-symptoms-of-omicron.html

大多数PCR核酸检测和快速抗原测试都可以检测到奥密克戎（美国食品和药物管理局指出仅有少数测试无法做到这一点），但至于感染的是何种毒株，人们不得而知，因为结果并不会标示出来。

Some symptom differences have emerged from preliminary data, but experts are not certain they are meaningful. Data released last week from South Africa’s largest private health insurer, for instance, suggest that South Africans with Omicron often develop a scratchy ² or sore throat along with nasal congestion, a dry cough and muscle pain, especially low back pain.文章源自西贝博客-https://qinghe.me/what-are-the-symptoms-of-omicron.html

人们从初步数据中发现了一些症状差异，但专家不确定它们是否有意义。例如，南非最大的私人医疗保险公司上周发布的数据表明，感染奥密克戎的南非人经常会出现喉咙痒或疼痛，并伴有鼻塞、干咳和肌肉疼痛，尤其是腰背疼痛。

But these are all symptoms of Delta and of the original coronavirus, too, said Ashley Z. Ritter, an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the chief executive of Dear Pandemic. Given that Omicron has been circulating for only about three weeks, she added, “it’s still too early to say that there’s any difference in symptoms between the Omicron variant and previous versions.”

但是，宾夕法尼亚大学兼职教授、“亲爱的大流行”网站负责人阿什利·里特说，这些也都是德尔塔病毒和原始新冠病毒会有的症状。她还说，鉴于奥密克戎仅传播了大约三周，“现在说奥密克戎与先前变异株的症状之间有任何差异还为时过早。”

It’s likely that the symptoms of Omicron will resemble Delta’s more than they differ.

很有可能，奥密克戎带来的症状与德尔塔的相似之处要多于不同之处。

“There’s probably a huge amount of overlap between Omicron and the prior variants, because they are essentially doing the same thing,” said Dr. Otto O. Yang, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine. “If there are differences, they’re probably fairly subtle.”

“奥密克戎和之前的变异株之间可能存在大量重叠，因为它们本质上在做同样的事情，”加州大学洛杉矶分校大卫格芬医学院传染病医生奥托·杨（音）博士说。“如果有差异，也可能相当微小。”

One possible difference is that Omicron may be less likely than earlier variants to cause a loss of taste and smell. Research suggests that 48 percent of patients with the original SARS-CoV-2 strain reported loss of smell and 41 percent reported loss of taste, but an analysis of a small Omicron outbreak among vaccinated people in Norway found that only 23 percent of patients reported loss of taste, and only 12 percent reported loss of smell. It’s unclear, though, whether these differences are because of Omicron or some other factor, like vaccination status.

一个可能的区别是，与早期的变异株相比，奥密克戎可能不太会导致味觉和嗅觉丧失。研究表明，48%的原始SARS-CoV-2患者报告失去嗅觉，41%报告失去味觉，但对挪威疫苗接种人群中暴发的一次小规模奥密克戎疫情所做的分析发现，只有23%的患者报告失去味觉，只有12%的人报告失去嗅觉。不过，尚不清楚这些差异来自奥密克戎还是其他一些因素，例如疫苗接种状态。

Indeed, many Covid-19 symptoms vary depending on a person’s vaccine status. Maya N. Clark-Cutaia, an assistant professor at the New York University Meyers College of Nursing who has been following up with Covid-19 patients throughout the pandemic, said that vaccinated patients with Delta or the original coronavirus tend to present with headache, congestion, sinus pressure and sinus pain, while unvaccinated patients are more likely to have shortness of breath and cough, along with flulike symptoms.

事实上，许多新冠症状因人的接种状态而异。纽约大学迈耶斯护理学院助理教授玛雅·克拉克—库塔亚在整个疫情期间一直在跟进新冠感染者，她说已接种者感染了德尔塔或原始新冠病毒往往会出现头痛、鼻塞、鼻窦压力和鼻窦疼痛，而未接种疫苗的患者更可能出现呼吸急促和咳嗽，以及流感样症状。

With Omicron, Dr. Clark-Cutaia said patients she’s talked to in Pennsylvania are presenting with similar symptoms to Delta. Vaccinated Omicron patients complain of headaches, body aches and fever — “like a really bad cold,” she said. Unvaccinated people have the same shortness ³ of breath, cough and flulike symptoms she saw among unvaccinated people with Delta and the original coronavirus.

对于奥密克戎，克拉克—库塔亚博士说，她在宾夕法尼亚州接触的患者都表现出与德尔塔相似的症状。她说，接种过疫苗的奥密克戎患者抱怨头痛、身体疼痛和发烧——“就像一场非常严重的感冒”。未接种疫苗的人有呼吸急促、咳嗽和类似流感的症状，她在感染了德尔塔和原始新冠病毒的未接种人群中也看到过这些症状。

One other difference between Omicron and other variants is that Omicron seems to have a shorter incubation time — after a person is exposed, it takes as few as three days for them to develop symptoms, become contagious and test positive compared with four to six days with Delta and the original coronavirus, said Dr. Waleed Javaid, the director of infection prevention and control at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York City. That could be because the variant’s mutations help it attach to and go inside cells, he added.

纽约西奈山医院的感染预防和控制主任瓦利德·贾韦德博士说，奥密克戎和其他变异株之间的另一个区别是，前者的潜伏期似乎更短——一个人暴露后，他们只需短短三天就会出现症状，变得具有传染性，而且检测结果呈阳性，而感染德尔塔和原始新冠病毒的潜伏期是四到六天。他还说，这可能是因为该变异株的突变有助于它附着并进入细胞。

What about the claim that Omicron infections are milder than Delta infections? According to last week’s data from South Africa, after controlling for vaccination status, the risk of hospitalization for adults diagnosed with Omicron was 29 percent lower there than in the first wave of the pandemic, and hospitalized South African Covid-19 patients have been less likely to be admitted to intensive care.

那么感染奥密克戎的症状是否像有人声称的那样比感染德尔塔更轻？根据上周来自南非的数据，在对照疫苗接种状态后，诊断为奥密克戎的成年人住院风险比第一波疫情低29%，并且南非的新冠住院患者进入重症监护室的可能性更低。

But South Africa’s observations may not apply to the United States and other countries. Most South Africans have already been infected with Covid-19, and the median age in South Africa is 27 — both of which might cause the variant to have milder effects there than in the U.S., where the median age is 38, Dr. Yang said. The data also showed that, although children tended ⁴ to have mild symptoms, they were 20 percent more likely to be hospitalized during the Omicron wave compared with the first wave.

但南非的观察结果可能不适用于美国和其他国家。杨博士说，大多数南非人已经感染过新冠，南非的中位年龄为27岁——这两者都可能导致该变异株在那里产生的影响比美国更轻，美国的中位年龄为38岁。数据还显示，尽管儿童往往症状较轻，但与第一波相比，他们在奥密克戎暴发期间住院的可能性上升了20%。

“There are people who get severe illness from Omicron,” Dr. Javaid said. Sometimes, early mild symptoms can develop into serious symptoms later, so it’s crucial that people with cold or flulike symptoms be tested and stay home. “It is still a coronavirus. We’re still in a pandemic,” he said.

“有些人因感染奥密克戎而患重症，”贾韦德博士说。有时，早期的轻微症状可能会在以后发展成重症，因此有感冒或流感样症状的人要进行检测并留在家里，这至关重要。“它仍然是一种新冠病毒。我们仍处于大流行中，”他说。